With the start of the Apex league, Overwatch fans around the globe are privileged to be exposed to the legendary production of OGN. But, as with the birth of any new esport, we are being rapidly exposed to new talent, and sometimes it may be difficult to judge them.
In the Apex league, we have 12 Korean teams and four western teams. As Overwatch fans are already familiar with the western team lineups and players, they will not be covered in this series. Instead, as the 12 Korean teams debut, I will be discussing the standout players to keep your eye on as the season develops.
Normally, I have been highlighting a single player from each team. But, this past Friday, only one new team debuted, LW Blue. They were such a fantastic team to watch that I have decided to discuss two of their players in this part of the series.
Death by Slaps: Janus
Janus certainly isn’t the only great tank player in the world. He certainly isn’t the only impressive Winston player either. But whereas many tank players are most notable when they are setting up their allies for success, Janus is more impressive as a one man army.
LW Blue’s debut as a team was altogether a spectacle to behold as they handedly defeated the star studded Kongdoo Panthera. On their debut map, Janus showed the quality of his Winston play. He was more than proficient at the standard Winston patterns, diving in while supported by Zarya shields to draw attention and put threat on the enemy backline. But the distinguishing quality of his play was how many players he killed during his ultimate Primal Rage.
It’s relatively difficult to kill players during Primal Rage, especially when compared to the other primary tank ultimates like Earthshatter and Graviton Surge, both of which hold your enemies still. The knockback effect of Winston’s blows make it easy for enemies to flee, or for the Winston to accidently save his foes. As such, many players use the ultimate as just an amplified version of Winston’s normal play, a way to cause chaos in enemy backlines. But Janus was more than a simple nuisance, regularly netting himself multiple kills.
He abused the ability to knock his foes backward and regularly knocked them off of edges, using the environment to kill his foes. This was especially noticeable on his king of the hill debut. He would dive in and clear the point for his allies. He even carried this style over onto his Reinhardt. Janus shields his allies until they are within engagement range, at which time he sets aside the shield in favor of his hammer, and goes to work on his enemies.
Janus’s offensive style is a key lynchpin in the LW Blue play. He continues supporting his DPS players when they get in close. Because of his influence on his team’s play, it seems likely that his success is almost directly correlated to the success of the whole squad. As such, he is a player we need to keep our eyes on, for better or for worse.
Death By Bullets: Saebyeolbe
Taimou is a fantastic DPS player, nobody will argue that. He serves Team EnVyUs as a consistent source of damage, regardless of the pressure put on him. But the aspect of his play that appears to be missing is the ability to play heroes like Tracer and pull off the flashy quad-kills. Of course, he gets multikills, but we tend to see his kills come from a string of headshots on McCree or Widowmaker.
Both aspects of play are required for great teams. You need the player who can consistently pick up kills, but sometimes you also need that unimaginable playmaker to bring you back into a match. Traditionally, EnVyUs has left that sort of play to Talespin, as such, Taimou has been allowed to focus on his hitscan DPS. But where Saebyeolbe excels is that he is a master at providing both the consistent damage, and being the playmaker.
As the primary DPS player on LW Blue, there is a lot of pressure on him to clean up fights. In this meta, he is frequently the only offensive hero in this team’s lineup, especially when NoName picks up Mei. Luckily for LW Blue, Saebyeolbe is both a top tier McCree and Tracer. Within the same map, he went from dominating the high ground landing headshots as McCree, to pulling off an insane chasing penta-kill on Tracer to bring his team back into contention on the map.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see his post game screen, so we don’t know his exact accuracy percentage or headshot percentage. But, just from watching him, I guarantee that both figures were impressive. His tracking ability allows him to excel on both hitscan heroes like McCree and Tracer. Based off his pure ability alone, he is a player we need to watch out for, and his seemingly intuitive timing on when to aggress puts him in contention for one of the most well rounded DPS players in the world.
Who impressed you the most this week? Comment below or tweet your answer to us @GAMURScom.
GGs, Elbion
Follow the Author: @tuffsj
